The 3DO was always a
mixed bag for games and quite frankly it is tough to find something these days worthwhile
to play. Thankfully, Need For Speed breaks the mold and still holds up today.
Although not phenomenal, it offers some enjoyable game play for at least some short
increments. The biggest problem here is the lack of depth or options. You can choose difficulty, cars, and three tracks, but there's no actual competition to participate in. All you do is race the opponent.
Visuals are surprisingly pleasant. The frame rate is very smooth for the 3DO, and the graphics have a surprising amount of detail. EA was the single company that figured out how to use the 3DO capabilities to the fullest extent. Distance is easy to judge as well.
Overhead and cockpit views are available for the actual racing but the cockpit view is the only version worth using as the others seem like your racing at 30 miles an hour and drag the game out to the land of boredom.
When you complete a race your treated to some smooth FMV of the opponent racer talking trash. Everything works pretty well here. Even the controls are dead on and responsive, which is a nice break for the 3DO since control issues plague many games on the console.
This is one of the landmarks of the console as it's the Need
For Speed's debut. It's definitely solid and needs to be in any 3DO collection. I'm
afraid it won't turn a new gamer on to the system. It would be the same as starting
someone off on the Playstation with Ridge Racer. The game play options aren't
there and the length is too short. At the least, it's a great tool to show that the
console could get darn close to the graphic capabilities of the Playstation and would been
a serious contender had the right games been produced for it.